


I'm always down to hide with you

by thesurielofficial



Series: ATLA wlw week [5]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: ATLA WLW Week 2020, Avatar: The Last Airbender – The Rise of Kyoshi, Avatar: The Last Airbender – The Shadow of Kyoshi, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, Falling In Love, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Insecure Kyoshi, Love Languages, Words of Affirmation, because I am a simple lesbian, there is homoerotic hand holding, who believes in the power of holding hands
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-25
Updated: 2020-09-25
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:20:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 985
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26649715
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thesurielofficial/pseuds/thesurielofficial
Summary: Rangi has never announced her love for Kyoshi. But Kyoshi hears it anyway.Written for Day 5 of ATLA wlw week: Love Languages
Relationships: Kyoshi/Rangi (Avatar)
Series: ATLA wlw week [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1931743
Comments: 14
Kudos: 83
Collections: AtLA WLW week 2020





	I'm always down to hide with you

**Author's Note:**

> Title from June by Florence + The Machine. It's a beautiful song!

Sometimes, Kyoshi hates that Rangi is a firebender. She especially hates it when Rangi rises with the sun and forces Kyoshi awake to meditate and practice firebending forms. Not that Kyoshi can firebend. Or airbend. Or waterbend. Or earthbend smaller pieces of earth.

Some Avatar she is.

But that doesn’t stop Rangi from making her get up at the crack of dawn. Kyoshi tries to focus on Yangchen. The Avatar can connect to their past lives. Maybe one of those past lives will have some advice on her. And it’s probably Yangchen. Yangchen - now there’s a good, capable Avatar. She was so respected that even two Avatars later, people invoke her name. Kyoshi knows she won’t be like that. But at this rate, she’s probably going to be worse than Kuruk. Looking for her parents’ daofei companions probably wasn’t the best way to ascend into Avatarhood, but given the circumstances, it may be the only way for her to get justice for Yun. 

Ugh, wasn’t meditation supposed to be about making her mind vacant and focusing on only one thing? Her thoughts are all over the place. Maybe she should close her eyes and sleep a bit, it’s not like Rangi would notice.

 _Rangi._ She feels a pang of guilt for dragging her friend into this crazy plan of hers. Rangi deserved a better Avatar, and a better friend too. 

“I can feel you overthinking things, you know?” Rangi says. Kyoshi opens her eyes slightly to see Rangi sitting in perfect stillness, seemingly focused. “It’s messing up my routine.”

“Aren’t we nearly done?” Kyoshi asks.

“Yes. I wouldn’t have interrupted my meditation if we weren’t,” Rangi replies, slowly opening her yes and getting up. Kyoshi can’t help but admire how beautiful she looks. She moves with such fluidity and grace, in everything that she does. The sun really makes her burnt gold eyes gleam. And her hair is pristine as ever- Kyoshi wants to touch it, it looks so soft in the glow of the dawn.

“Seriously, though, what’s on your mind?” Kyoshi realises that she’s supposed to be getting up now, so she does, all too aware of each clumsy movement, her long limbs so out of sync for even the simplest of tasks. 

“I- nothing. It’s okay. Let’s just get this done with and then continue moving. We can’t stay in one place too long,” Kyoshi replies. Even her words seem clumsy. She bites the inside of her cheek, but Rangi knows her too well and will know that something is off. She just hopes that the firebender won’t call her out on it. But Rangi gives her this _look_ and Kyoshi can’t stop the next words from spilling from her mouth. “I can’t firebend.” She laughs bitterly. “I’m supposed to have mastered all four bending techniques by now. But I can’t even get the stupid flames out.” 

She holds out her hands in front of her, in anger, in horror, in annoyance, as though they’ll come alive with flame if she stares at them long enough. But then smaller, calloused hands cover hers. Rangi takes Kyoshi’s hands and holds them up, their fingers intertwined. She closes her eyes and Kyoshi just gapes at the shorter girl, unsure of what exactly is happening. Then she feels this warmth emanating from Rangi’s palms. And it isn’t uncomfortably hot like she’d think it would be. There’s no fire scalding her palms, and Rangi’s brows are furrowed in concentration. She lets the warmth seep into her skin, warm her bones and relax her muscles. It feels like the first sip of hot tea on a cold day. There is a cold in her that she didn’t even realise existed but now she can feel it making its way out of her system.

And then Rangi steps away and the fire is gone. But the warmth remains.

“Wow, that really does take a lot of control,” Rangi says after a second of stunned silence on both their ends. “I hadn’t done it before, but I knew of it. And I knew how it worked in theory. It’s a way for firebenders to share their fire with someone, the feeling of it. It takes a lot of trust and control for it to work.”

“How did you manage to keep all that fire contained?”

“I wouldn’t burn you. I like your hands too much,” Rangi replied with a flash of a smile. “Besides, the point I was trying to make is that I trust you. And you trust me. You didn’t draw back or even startle. And I- the thing is, sharing your inner fire with someone is vulnerable. It’s not easy and I wouldn’t just do it for anyone.”

“But you did it for me,” Kyoshi states. _Why?_

“Yes, I did. Because I trust you Kyoshi, as my friend who will get us out of this. And I trust you, Avatar Kyoshi, as the person who can help bring peace and justice to the world. You constantly undersell yourself. I’m oath-bound to protect the Avatar. But you’re more than that. You’re more than the Avatar. And you’re more than a lost Earth Kingdom citizen. You’re just...more. Like, well, fire. People see fire and they think of destruction, but it’s more than that. It’s life-giving and warm.”

Kyoshi doesn’t know what to say. But Rangi doesn’t mind her silence, so it’s alright. 

“This does not mean I’m going any easier on you, though,” Rangi reminds her. And in a flash, the soft, vulnerable side that Kyoshi had just witnessed seems to be gone and Rangi is back to her evil, evil ways of tiring Kyoshi out with stance training. Kyoshi groans and gets into position, but something inside her flickers. There is a thought in her mind, and it is too abstract for her to understand. She tucks it away and decides to worry about it later.

**Author's Note:**

> First Rangshi thing I wrote after reading Rise of Kyoshi because I am in LOVE with them. in LOVE. Originally planned on making this a 5 + 1 but I didn't have much time. I might update it later, though! 
> 
> May I just say: hand holding. hands!! not to be gay, but h a n d h o l d i n g ! There's something so tender and intimate about the gesture,,,and the touch starvation is getting real bad in quarantine, hence, the hand holding.
> 
> My tumblr.
> 
> Comments and kudos are very much appreciated!!


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